As automotive vehicles evolve, there is a continuing effort to reduce the size of components. This is done for many reasons, such as to provide increased room in passenger and engine compartments; to provide additional space for structural elements and to accommodate design flexibility. With respect to vehicular headlamp assemblies there is a need to make headlamp assemblies shorter in the fore/aft direction and smaller in both vertical and horizontal extent so that headlamps require less space. It is necessary to at least preserve headlamp performance while decreasing size. Size reduction is desirable for all types of road illumination devices, including low beam headlamps, high beam headlamps, front fog lamps, auxiliary low beams, and auxiliary high beams
Low and high beam lamps using halogen, high intensity discharged (HID) or xenon bulbs, generate considerable heat which tends to melt plastic headlamp lenses, usually made from polycarbonate, e.g. LEXON®, if the lenses are mounted too close to the optical system. Consequently, plastic lenses must be spaced from bulb tips by a distance in the range of 35-75 mm. Reducing this clearance would help decrease the fore/aft dimension of headlamp assemblies, thus providing additional space behind the headlamp assemblies, which space could be utilized for other purposes.